Re: A. cruzi? + Any cure for sick rams?

[Donald Nute <dnute@ai.uga.edu>]

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Lilia Stepanova wrote:

>  
> Thank you. I think it is ick, and  try to get cure today. Is it possible 
> the food source is contaminated? I had the problem before, and my friend 
> had, fish always cleared themselves, it never was so nasty. And it always 
> happened after 2 consecutive days of feeding with BS (we both have the 
> same batch). In my absense he feeded it for 4 days - is it mere 
> coincindence or my BS is infested? 
> Does this infestation mean I need to reset the whole tank?

It's probably impossible to keep the parasite out of your tanks. It can
come in with plants, fish, gravel, maybe even your water source. But fish
typically aren't affected unless they are stressed. I doubt very seriously
that they go it from the brine shrimp, but if too much FROZEN brine shrimp
were fed over a short period of time, much of it might not have been eaten
and it might have caused enough deterioration of the water quality to
stress the fish and allow them to become victim to the parasite. Once a
few stressed fish become badly infected, the stronger fish are unable to
resist the greater number of organisms and become infected, too.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest fish ailments to remedy. But the
best way to prevent it is to maintain good water quality and adequate
temperature. I have found a chill to be the quickest way to end up with a
tank of polkadot fish.

Don

Donald Nute
Professor and Head, Department of Philosophy        (706) 542-2823
Director, Artificial Intelligence Center            (706) 542-0358
The University of Georgia                       FAX (706) 542-2839
Athens, Georgia  30602, U.S.A             http://ai.uga.edu/~dnute